As a woman who is bothered by the “females” thing, “female humans” doesn’t sound bad to me. It’s because “female” is used as an adjective here. It’s the same reason “black women” sounds fine, but “blacks” sounds bad. It’s reducing someone to their gender only, as if they’re not humans, too. It feels otherimg.
And what’s the difference? A female human IS a woman and vice versa?
When I’d say “you are a female” is the context absolutely obvious that you’re a human. So using the word woman instead basically says the same. A human entity whose sex is female. There is no judging, no condescending, no nothing. Just pure information.
Never in my life have i seen it as offending. As long the person who uses these terms uses them equally for both sexes with due respect. And not like men/females etc.
The analogy to “blacks” is misleading as it’s both sexes while “black woman” isn’t.
As a woman who is bothered by the “females” thing, “female humans” doesn’t sound bad to me. It’s because “female” is used as an adjective here. It’s the same reason “black women” sounds fine, but “blacks” sounds bad. It’s reducing someone to their gender only, as if they’re not humans, too. It feels otherimg.
Thanks for writing that out. I’d never quite groked why it (and similar wording) sounded wrong: reducing a person to an adjective.
Yeah, it does bother me, but not for the same reason. It’s something I associate moderately with terf lingo. But it’s a yellow flag and not a red one
And what’s the difference? A female human IS a woman and vice versa? When I’d say “you are a female” is the context absolutely obvious that you’re a human. So using the word woman instead basically says the same. A human entity whose sex is female. There is no judging, no condescending, no nothing. Just pure information.
Never in my life have i seen it as offending. As long the person who uses these terms uses them equally for both sexes with due respect. And not like men/females etc. The analogy to “blacks” is misleading as it’s both sexes while “black woman” isn’t.